Why John’s bisexuality is the MOST important reveal BBC Sherlock can orchestrate

welovethebeekeeper:

Dr John Watson is bisexual in canon, granted I think he leans towards the gay side of the Kinsey scale, and have taken into account his genesis in the Victorian era which caused him to be socially prone to relationships with women, but all in all I believe John is bisexual in canon. In BBC Sherlock, John’s bisexuality is repressed, and by preponderance, he courts females. However in our show our version of John falls deeply in love with men whilst keeping women at an emotional distance. It’s beautiful in it’s complexity and nuance, a person centred, in depth look at a bisexual man. One to be studied, no doubt, in the context of the evolution of Dr Watson and bisexuality on screen. 

Now once we get the reveal, the confirmation of John and Sherlock as a couple, there will be a huge song and dance in the media about ‘gay Holmes and Watson’, we will hear and read a great deal about a ‘gay’ Sherlock Holmes, and I am betting that John’s bisexuality will get less recognition. Because you see bisexuality is the great unknown, the big fear of hetero-normativity. [Now some sarcasm] Far more a threat than gay men or lesbians, because after all you can ‘tell’ who they are! You can segregate them. But the bisexuals? They hide in the straight’s midst and they are so sneaky and confusing that it’s best to just pretend they don’t exist. Society still does not understand or even recognise bisexuals. If a man checks out a woman then he MUST be straight, if a woman is married to a man then she must be straight, right? Right?

Bisexuality is not even a consideration. Sexual fluidity is not understood. Therefore to have John Watson, with his history of girlfriends and a wife, to finally end up deeply and irrevocably in love with a man, will be of the utmost importance. Of course there will be anger over it, rejection of it’s authenticity, feelings of being tricked by the writers [het baiting] and accusations of pandering to the fan base, but once all the fuss dies down, there will be, on film, a deeply nuanced journey of a male bisexual, and that my friends is a big fucking deal. Thank God, they chose Martin Freeman to give us this multilayered performance over the course of 7 years, as he has been stellar in his portrayal of one man’s journey to discover himself and true love. [And I haven’t even seen his performance in series 4 yet] 

Revealing Sherlock as a gay man in TSOT was bold, it was beautiful, but not as ground breaking as the reveal of John as a bisexual man will be, THIS is the thing that the heteronormative viewpoint will not have seen, will not expect. The writers were correct in clarifying Sherlock’s sexuality earlier than John’s. [Yes they threw in the clue of Sholto, but that will have gone under the radar for most het viewers] Just to finally witness the struggles of a bisexual journey on screen is groundbreaking, but the response will speak volumes of the society we live in and the lack of even basic recognition of the bisexual next door, or across the desk, in the seat next to us on the tube or on the bus, or even in the same bed.

Dr John Watson has been bisexual all this time, over 130 years, and we are on the cusp of seeing this man in all his glory. The bisexuality that was so misunderstood, so ignored, that it precluded a vast amount of people for over a century, to realise they were reading an epic love affair.